If you seek a satisfying source of an adrenaline rush, skiing should be at the top of your list. Besides testing your strength and flexibility, it would also test your toughness in dealing with extreme weather. But your willingness, bravery, and guts to try this sport aren’t enough to get the most out of skiing. Like everything else, what you need to consider first is your safety. Thus, you need to know the body parts that need the most protection. On top of that, you must carefully pick your gears and equipment to ensure that you would have a safe and satisfying experience in skiing.
Here’s a list of the top body parts you should consider protecting and the gears to purchase to protect them adequately.
Hands
Nothing ruins a ski experience than having freezing hands; that is why you should choose a set of gloves that would keep your hands warm throughout your skiing activities. One more important thing to consider in selecting gloves, aside from their thickness, is whether you will still have the ability to touch your phone’s touch screen even when you’re wearing them. This glove feature is an innovative life-saver because it will give you an immediate opportunity to contact your ski mates when something unexpected happens.
Torso and Back
Snow can be both your friend or foe when it comes to skiing. When you are fully equipped and prepared, it will be a friend that would make your skiing a great experience. But if you are ill-prepared, then it will be your greatest enemy that would make you leave the skiing slopes as early as possible.
With these facts, you need to make sure that you have reliable gears with you, and the first gear that you should focus on, aside from the ski equipment, is a Bogner jacket. Mind you, this jacket is not just a mere winter jacket because it is specifically designed to weather the challenges in skiing slopes.
What’s unique about this jacket is it’s breathable but keeps you warm simultaneously, which is a perfect combination when doing snow-related activities. Keeping your torso and back warm throughout your skiing activity is essential because if sharp coldness seeps through on these body parts, your skiing performance would be badly affected. Usually, this happens because of a poor-quality ski jacket; that is why you should be careful in choosing a ski jacket, whether you’re a rookie or a seasoned skier.
Face
If someone says that you should apply sunscreen on your face before skiing, it might sound ridiculous at first, but actually, it makes a lot of sense. Even if sun rays are not dominant in a skiing area, please remember that clouds cannot block the sun’s UV rays; that is why you should still apply protection for your face even if sun rays are not visible.
Aside from sunscreen, it should also be partnered with high-quality ski masks that would protect you, not only from the sun’s UV rays but also from coldness as well. Because throughout your skiing, you wouldn’t want to be distracted by strong winds hitting your face (which is extremely cold and painful, by the way). Ski masks are an essential part of your gear as it reduces the distractions and discomfort that you will surely experience in your skiing.
Legs
Hear this: the worst thing you could ever wear on your legs during a ski event would be jeans. Jeans would absorb the melted snow and bring moisture directly to your legs. As a result, the coldness in your legs would multiply and would make you surrender early from the ski arena.
If you want something thin and light but can still keep your legs as warm as possible, then you should choose pants made of thermal layers. Thermal layers clothes are specifically designed to retain as much heat as possible without the need to have thick layers of cloth. This is an innovative piece of gear that you should have because you don’t need to choose between comfort and convenience anymore. After all, thermal cloth pants have both of these features.
One more important thing to keep your legs in tip-top shape is to do some stretching before skiing to control the flow of oxygen in your legs. This is highly important because your legs will receive the most beatings during a ski activity.
Feet and Ankles
To protect your ankles and feet in skiing, of course, what you’ll need is a pair of reliable boots. But merely purchasing ski boots wouldn’t guarantee that you would totally and adequately protect your ankles and feet from the snow.
Before purchasing a set of boots, make sure that it perfectly fits your feet because boots that are too tight for your feet would ruin your skiing experience. The following fact might be surprising, but tight boots would bring more coldness into your feet. Why? Because your boots’ tightness would restrict the blood flow in your feet, the heat production in your feet and ankle would decrease.
Choosing ski boots that are perfect for your feet size is highly recommendable and necessary. You might find it hard to find the right size for you, but the time you’ll spend searching for right-sized boots is worth it as it will save you from the headaches of feet-related problems during your ski.
We hope you would now have a better knowledge of how to protect yourself while doing the extreme sport of skiing with this list. Your willingness and bravery to try this sport are commendable, but nothing beats someone who would put their safety first in every venture they want to try.
